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Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail

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In his "Letter form a Birmingham Jail" and his "I have a Dream speech, Dr. King uses metaphor, repetition and parallel structure to provide visual images which may evoke empathy in the readers and audience and emphasize the ideas he presents: the argument for civil rights and the goal to end segregation. Dr. King was an educated man with moral values in his speech and letter in that order he stated "Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood." "Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity." When we think of quicksand we think of being stuck and dying if we do not get help. Dr. King recognize the …show more content…

The idea that God was with them and God would provide. In The speech and in his letter in that order "Negros live on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material …show more content…

King use Now is the time three times, I believe it was important to make clear they could not and would not wait. Many people claimed to believe change had to happen, but not now. Dr. King understood segregation would not go away and there is no time like the present.Consequently many people did not understand why Dr. King was fighting for change, in the Letter King when you ten times. People may did not have the same life situations as negros, but when you think of mobs lynching your mother one cannot help but feel sadness. The ideas of people being sensitive towards other suffering is what makes us care. Once we can identify with other we cannot turn a blind eye, we become involved in the situation. In addition, he repeats "we can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their adulthood and robbed of their dignity. " Dr. King knows that people have a special place in their hearts for children and will sympathize with

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